I’m a high school freshman from the bay area. I want to go into either cs or business and im aiming for a top 30 college. I’m only concerned with EC’s right now all I have is: basketball (which im not so good at), DECA, cullinary arts (hobby), and math club. My grades are alright I only worry for my activities.
Get involved in an area you are passionate about. You may find some atypical area also that might impress these more selective schools. Stick with a few things and get involved in leadership for your 4 years. Culinary arts, possibly take some classes, start a club, teach some classes. That is not something typical. Some colleges give scholarships for leadership and diversity. Take a look at the college scholarship applications now and see what they are looking at. There is some good info/advice online by those who help with admissions. You can read quite a bit of advice without paying for it. Prep now for your ACT/SAT. Keep your grades up. Take honors classes and when you are a junior and senior take AP classes.
It is accepted and fairly-well confirmed wisdom that WHAT you are involved in matters little relative to showing a depth and consistency to your involvement. Some EC/awards—winning national awards, Olympic medals, etc.—obviously carry significant weight in and of themselves, but most colleges couldn’t care less which club, which hobby, or which volunteer activity you are involved with as long as you are showing several years of serious commitment and a total resume of more than just a kid who has good grades, a good test score, and nothing else.
In my opinion, you should choose extracurriculars because you enjoy them, not thinking about college admissions. You are working hard in school, and your extracurriculars should be a release from pressure. Do them because they are fun!
If you do things you enjoy, you will have experiences along the way and develop skills that you may not even realize are important until you sit down to work on your application in the August before your senior year. You will be an interesting candidate to admissions officers because you are genuinely interested in those activities and can tell a meaningful story about them.
Do not worry now about what “learning” will occur or what “story” you will tell. You do not know yet. You cannot know yet. That is something cool about life; you do not always know what is significant until you look back on it.
If you want reassurance that this approach works:
My son was admitted early decision to his top choice, an extremely selective top-ranked liberal arts college. My son’s essay was about a small moment during his camp job which he did not realize at the time would be the stuff of a college essay; he made that connection while brainstorming in response to the Common App prompts. He did activities he enjoyed, and he can be proud of his accomplishments in them… but he did not invent a cure for a disease, compete nationally in a sport, perform at Carnegie Hall, do an internship, do service in a foreign country, become president of a club, start a new club, win a national competition, have all his activities relate to one another or to his major, or whatever else sometimes some people on College Confidential seem to think you need to do extracurricularly in order to get into a top college. He did what interested him. In the end, he was able to write little blurbs about his activities in the Common App (and speak of them in interviews at other colleges), in a way that enhanced his application.
Enjoy high school. You get to experience it only once!